Larry Flynt Interview

Porn Mogul Larry Flynt Reveals His Favorite Part Of A Woman's Body

Larry Flynt loves to talk about two things: sex and politics. When I arrive at his infamous Beverly Hills office building, I know that the upcoming presidential election, pornography and women will be our main discussion points. He is, after all, America’s most iconic and long-lasting advocate of free speech.

I’m lead up to the tenth floor. Flynt’s office looks more like an Old Hollywood starlet’s living room than a modern space. Oil paintings framed in gold adorn the dark walls. There are flowers on every table and lush, Victorian furniture pieces. Everything is mauve and gold. Everything except the glossy issues of Hustler magazine strewn across every flat surface. Tits and ass smile at me as I walk up to the porn mogul.

The 73-year-old president of the Larry Flynt Publications multibillion-dollar entertainment conglomerate shakes my hand and smiles from behind his big, wooden desk. To his left, a massive book of Helmut Newton’s photographs is displayed in front of a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooks Los Angeles. He sips on a cappuccino and drums his jeweled fingers on his cheek as I ask him: “What is the most beautiful thing about a woman?”

“Most men are either breast men or butt men,” says Flynt. “Me, I’m a pussy guy. The most beautiful part about women is that you can stand them on their head and they would all look like sisters.” He smiles and I cannot help but laugh. Most women would get offended, but my humor is of his school: I like snark and smut. Besides, as Flynt himself once said: “If you are not going to offend somebody, you don’t need the First Amendment.”

Flynt has been offending people since the late '60s, when he opened his first Hustler Club in Dayton, Ohio. After leaving home at 15 years old and joining the U.S. Army with a forged birth certificate, he got obsessed with poker, was honorably discharged and hitched it back to his hometown of Magoffin County, Kentucky. He tried his hand at bootlegging liquor before rejoining the forces, getting discharged again, and taking the $1,800 he had saved up to buy his family’s bar — eventually turning it into Dayton’s premiere topless club.

The Hustler Club expanded with locations all over the Midwest and Flynt became a rich man. In 1972, with the help of his then-girlfriend (soon to be fourth wife) Althea and his business partner and brother, Flynt printed the first issue of the Hustler newsletter. This iconic black and white foldout would eventually morph into the most controversial pornographic magazine of America. Hustler pissed people off with its political cartoons, brash journalism and full display of women’s naked bodies – bush, anus, vagina and all. The May 1978 Mother’s Day issue featured a pregnant woman with her stomach cut open like an anatomy mannequin’s. The August 1977 issue boasted the first “scratch and sniff” centerfold — complete with wild pubic hair, while the October 1983 one captured a punk chick spray painting “George Bush Has A.I.D.S.” onto a white wall. When it published paparazzi photos of Jackie O. naked, Hustler became the first magazine to feature unauthorized celebrity nudes.

But Flynt was not all about shocking his audience without any reason. He strived to provoke people into rethinking the puritanical morals associated with sex. He wanted to light a fire under America’s ass when it came to politics and cultural values. But why did Hustler’s every move turn people on yet scare them? As former Hustler editor Bruce David said, Flynt wanted to “make America a better place by using the First Amendment and his right to free speech to champion people — in [particularly] the working class. And he wanted to do this without embracing the political left or right.”

Anti-porn feminists like Gloria Steinem painted him as evil (though she once reported for the competing nudie mag Playboy). In 1978, white supremacist and convicted serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin shot Flynt and his lawyer after becoming enraged about an editorial on interracial sex.The assault left Flynt paralyzed from the waist down. Flynt and Hustler fought many legal battles, but it was not until the case of Hustler magazine vs. Rev. Jerry Falwell – when the conservative Southern televangelist sued the magazine for emotional distress following a satirical ad that claimed he lost his virginity to his mother — that freedom of speech became Flynt’s priority. Hustler won. The Supreme Court ruled. It was a hallmark case.

I ask Flynt what he thinks of the current presidential race. Donald Trump? Bernie Sanders? Hillary Clinton? As a man who once tried to run for office, Flynt has a mouthful of opinions on American politics.

“It’s bizarre, to say the least. I think the outcome is going to surprise a lot of people,” he says. “I do not think Mr. Trump is going to be our next president. I certainly hope not.” Flynt thinks Clinton is too “stubborn and calculated”, and while he likes Sanders’ ideas and energy, he does not think he is electable. According to Flynt, we will never get the perfect president: That came and went with John. F Kennedy. “He ignited a spirit that was even more profound than what Bernie or Obama have done with their campaigns. [Kennedy] made you feel good to be an American and I don’t think we’ll ever get that feeling back.”

Flynt thinks not enough people vote and when they do, they often go against their best interest by letting their emotions trump them. “My reason for being as concerned as I am about the next presidential election is the Supreme Court,” he says. Flynt explains that there are four Supreme Court Justices that are 78 years old — the age at which most step down, so whoever is elected president will get to appoint their replacements.*

*Editor’s note: At the time of the interview, Justice Antonin Scalia was still alive. He died on February 13, 2016. The Obama administration is in the process of appointing a replacement.

“The Supreme Court today makes the decisions that affect our everyday lives, not Congress. Congress shrugs [its] responsibilities and leaves it up to the Supreme Court to make the tough decisions. If you get a bunch of wackos up there — four decisions — that is really bad. I think that despite everything going on on the left, and everything going on on the right, we are still a centrist country when it gets right down to it.”